Hxppz Hyllwxzn
by Shona aka Mara
Summary: It's Hallowe'en and Fred's far from home


Rating: PG  
Setting: erm, can't really tell you, somewhere between 1997 and 2000   
A/N: wierd babble fic, should I be worried that I found it so easy to get into this person's head?  
  


* * *

  
  
Something… there was something she was meant to be doing… something to do with the time of year…maybe she'd written it down somewhere? That's what she did now, since she'd started to find it harder to keep track, she wrote things down.  
  
Hurredly setting down her make-shift plate with the unappetising remains of her meal on it, she moved quickly in a half crouch towards her latest theorum. The words had all made sense before, but now? They didn't look like words so much as gobbledy-gook.  
  
Gobbledy-gook. There was a good word! Where did it come from though? That was the question – there never seemed to be anyone who could tell her these things. Most times she tried not to ask, it only got people angry with her. They were angry with her a whole lot of the time, calling her horrid names and making her do stuff. They didn't know her secret though. They didn't know about the praxis she had with electronics. No going boom for her!  
  
Still, there was something she was meant to be doing… something to do with the time of year… She tried to get her brain to slow down enough to follow a thought through. Sometimes she thought so fast it felt like her head was going to go kablooie!  
  
Harvest was in and winter was coming. That much she remembered, so that made it… what? October? November? She'd lost track of time so long ago, it didn't seem to go the same here, since the accident, since she'd gone down this leg.  
  
She giggled as she remembered the first time she'd read about the trousers. Some writer had said that whenever you make a decision to do something, then one part of you goes down one leg of the Trousers of Time whilst in an alternate reality someone who was just like you only not you since they'd made a different choice went down the other leg. She'd thought about that one a lot since the accident, it made sense except that she didn't wear trousers. Maybe she could think of it like pantyhose? That meant that someone who was just like her was living in the real world, while she was here, in the other leg. Or maybe there was no alternate her. Maybe she'd gotten stuck in the gusset.  
  
She giggled again and then quickly covered her mouth in case anyone heard her. No one was meant to laugh here, if you had time to laugh then you weren't working hard enough.  
  
A half-finished word caught her eye and she groped for the chalk for a second before beginning to scribble again "Crv dr pff lr ploos pls" Mumbling the words under her breath as she wrote, she was oblivious to the flash of pure white light behind her. Something… something she was meant to be doing…  
  


* * *

  
  
He backed away hurredly as the green-skinned demon advanced on him. The thing was angry, that much was clear from the expression on it's oddly human face. It had him cornered, there was nothing he could do to get away from it, he gulped and faced it, expecting the worst.  
  
"Ramone! How can we advertise this as a Hallowe'en ball if we have no decorations?! Where's the Jack O'Lantern I asked for?"  
  
The man breathed a sigh of relief, this was an easy one – unlike the last time the demon had confronted him over the perfect recipe for a seabreeze!  
  
"It's right over there on the stage boss." He pointed over his shoulder without looking.  
  
Lorne watched wide-eyed as a bright white flash suddenly grew to envelope the stage, and then retreated just as quickly, taking with it the haphazardly placed decorations. It had been a long time since he'd seen anything like that happen and he prayed it would be even longer until he saw it again. Still, he hoped that whoever received the jack o'lantern enjoyed it, he turned away shrugging, already planning the playlist for tonights festivities. Would it be too tacky to kick things off with "Monster Mash?  
  


* * *

  
  
Realising she'd been talking aloud she stopped, again looking around in case anyone had heard her but there was no one. And then she let out a tiny scream. There, in the middle of the floor, staring straight at her, was an evil orange head.  
  
Reacting purely on instict she darted past it and only then realised what it was. Everything clicked into place in an instant – that was what she had been meant to be doing. Every year the children's corner in the library had freshly carved pumpkins and she and the other library assistants would spend all night making them. She giggled again.  
  
On a whim, she picked up the Jack O'Lantern and put it in the opening of the cave even though she was wary of the kind of trick or treaters it would attract here…  
  
"Happy Hallowe'en Fred" she thought, basking in the memories of the real world for a moment.  
  
Spotting something not quite right, she snatched up her chalk from where it had fallen and again began scribbling on the walls of her cave. There was something… something she was meant to be doing… 


End file.
